


Cute.

by helizanation



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: F/M, coffee shop AU, haikyuuauweek, hqauweek, more like an Addition than an AU, oh well, yamayachi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 21:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3704999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helizanation/pseuds/helizanation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yamaguchi is surprised to find Yachi Hitoka, the girl who was introduced as Karasuno's boy's volleyball team's new manager just the day before, at the coffee shop he goes to nearly every single morning. He is especially taken aback when he learns that her attendance is more regular than his and and is often there when he is. He just hadn't noticed until now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cute.

**Author's Note:**

> So guess who decides to post her second work of fan fiction literally over a year after she posts her first! That would be me, haha! Ahh... it's been a while.  
> I would like to thank Haikyuu!! AU Week for the opportunity and challenge of getting back to writing (and actually f i n i s h i n g) fan fiction. Sorry that this is a day late, but I honestly know nothing about medieval history (Day Two's promt), so instead of making Day One short and sweet and putting some research for what should be the Medieval AU, this Coffee Shop AU became this 2k+ word monstrosity. Sorry not sorry. This ship needs more love imo.  
> I dedicate this work to Tumblr users yamayachis and enno-so-done-with-your-shit-a ♥

Yamaguchi couldn’t remember if he saw her here before, but he had or not, he definitely noticed her now.

When he walked into the familiar coffee shop, he saw Yachi bent over her studies at a table at the opposite end of the shop. He stared at her for a few seconds, caught off guard, before he shook his head. It was barely yesterday when Shimizu-san came in with this skittish (and Yamaguchi thought “cute” before he mentally slapped himself) girl and introduced her as Karasuno’s potential future manager. Since they didn’t go to the same Junior High and they were in different classes, he didn’t see much of her before. Hinata and Kageyama had mentioned her when they told him and Tsukki they didn’t need them for tutoring anymore, but that was the first and last time she had heard of Yachi Hitoka.

He remembered that she said she was in Class 5 during her introduction. She must be smart in order to be in the other college-prep class, yet at the same time it seemed that she was able to handle his fellow first years (sure, Yamaguchi thought both Kageyama and Hinata were pretty good volleyball players and that they were sometimes fun to be around, but they were such bothersome pupils and had study habits Yamaguchi couldn’t begin to comprehend, let alone help them fix), but he expected someone more… Yamaguchi didn’t know any other word but "nerdy".

Then again, Yachi Hitoka was looking pretty nerdy right about now with her books sprawled all over the coffee shop’s table, her drink just within reach as she scribbled furiously onto her notebook while simultaneously reading one of her many texts in front of her.

 _Cute_.

Yamaguchi followed previous routine and mentally slapped himself, stopping the never-ending train of thought he knew would come before it could even start. He walked over to the counter where the nice college girl who worked in the shop weekday mornings stood patiently for him to approach.

“Good morning Yama-chan!” she said with a pleasant voice. The freckled boy smiled back.

“Good morning Amata-san” he replied, not even trying to get her to drop the ridiculous honorific. He knew the teasing would only worsen and the red hue of his face he spent years learning to control would return.

“Will it be the usual for you today?”

“Amata-san, I don’t see why you have to ask every ti—”

“So is that a yes?” the barista interrupted, smiling innocently. Yamaguchi sighed in defeat, but smiled nonetheless.

“Yes, I will have my usual, please.”

“And what is your usual, sir?”

“Amata-san, I come here practically every morning!”

The college girl hummed cheekily. “Well, maybe I’m having a bad morning. I’m getting old, you know. And it’s been so long since I made your drink, so you can’t blame me for forgetting.”

“Amata-san, you are literally only 3 years older than me. Plus it’s only been one day, and you know the only reason I wasn’t here yesterday because I had morning practice!”

Amata clicked her tongue. “You have your excuses and I have mine. See? We’re even. So, what is it going to be this morning Yama-chan?”

The barista was always teasing him, but today it was particularly bad. It didn’t bother Yamaguchi because the banter was never mean-spirited, but it was definitely unusual. Maybe she had noticed him staring at Yachi..?

“A medium iced chai latte with hazelnut” Yamaguchi mumbled after a short pause.

“What was that Yama-chan?”

“Medium iced chai latte with hazelnut… please!” he said a little louder, adding the last word of his sentence after Amata stared at him accusingly, causing her to giggle.

“Yama-chan’s regular, coming right up!”

Yamaguchi sighed in relief and shook his head as the barista began making his drink. He didn’t drink coffee in the morning because caffeine first thing made him super shaky and disoriented.

_Kind of like Yachi when she introduced herself._

_That’s two strikes, mister_ , Yamaguchi scolded himself as he mentally slapped himself once more.

He scanned the environment like he always does when he’s waiting for his drink. He liked coming to this little place, even if it was a little out of his way. Not only was the furniture comfortable and the music pleasant, but it was also right next to the train station he used to take to school every morning. There’s apparently a station closer to his house, but when he asked his mom the name of the nearest station that had the line going towards school, she accidentally gave him the name of this one. Since finding the coffee shop though, he didn’t mind doing the extra 30 minute walk.

As he surveyed his surroundings, his eyes fell once again on the small figure of Yachi Hitoka, who had switched from multitasking to giving her full-attention to yet another of her texts. Yamaguchi looked at her for a few seconds, curiously, trying to remember if he had seen Yachi at this place before.

“U-umm, Amata-san?” Yamaguchi asked quietly, facing the person he was addressing and fumbling out his words. The barista hummed questioningly, turning to look at him as she stirred the drink in her hand, “That girl over there… uh, the small one with the short blonde hair… does she come here often?”

Amata looked over to where Yamaguchi was motioning and stopped stirring the drink. She turned to stare at him for a second before she shook her head and chuckled. She took the spoon out of the chai latte and reached for a lid and a straw.

“You’re not very observant of other people, are you?” the barista commented in her regular teasing tone as she handed Yamaguchi his drink. “Yeah, Yac-chan comes here probably more often than you do. She does some of her homework here like you do, but she is almost always so engrossed in her work that she has to sprint out of here to catch the train, books in her hand, backpack open, papers flying everywhere. Hah, for being so smart she sure is disorganized! Besides that and the fact that I have to crane my neck downwards to talk to her, you guys have a lot in common!”

Yamaguchi bit his bottom lip pensively as he took his drink and straw. Maybe that’s why he didn’t notice her. He wasn’t always at the coffee shop because morning practice would have him heading to school before the shop opened. He also always made sure to be at the stop at least five minutes before the train was supposed to arrive and from that point on had his headphones on with his music turned up to a volume that would allow him to drown out his surroundings.

“You know, maybe if you didn’t devote all of your attention to that ‘Tsukki’ guy you always talk about, you could actually see other people like Yac-chan and start making friends with some of the other kids” Amata said, her voice conveying more seriousness than before, throwing Yamaguchi off slightly.

“My friend-making skills are perfectly up to par, thank you very much!” he replied, his voice accidentally squeaking in the middle of his sentence. The barista smirked, and Yamaguchi already knew what she was going to say before the words left her mouth.

“Really? Prove it then. Go sit with her. Make conversation. Talk about something that is _not_ volleyball” she sing-songed. Yamaguchi sighed, a little annoyed, but he knew she was right. The only other “friends” he had were Hinata and Kageyama, and even then they barely qualified to a status of something above acquaintances. He held conversations and exchanged jokes with classmates during lunch and after school, but most of his time was spent with Tsukishima.

 _Pathetic_.

He grumbled as he walked slowly towards the opposite direction of where he would usually go, towards where Yachi was sitting. The scenery of her table again had not changed, but seeing Yachi work so furiously up close was actually a lot more intimidating than Yamaguchi had expected. She looked like she was vibrating, and it actually worried Yamaguchi a little.

“Y-Yachi…san?” he said rather quietly, but she didn’t seem to hear him. He tried calling to her a couple more times, each time his voice increasing in volume before he noticed the iPod on the table with headphones plugged in to the auxiliary jack of the device. His desperation to prove Amata-san wrong made him miss something so obvious that he mentally kicked himself. He took a step towards the seemingly-agitated figure of Yachi Hitoka and gently prodded the blonde’s shoulder with his index finger.

“Yachi-san?”

He did _not_ expect the girl to yelp loudly and to jump in her seat (thankfully she was small enough that her knees didn’t hit the table to cause any more unwanted disasters), so the loud noise startled Yamaguchi as well and made _him_ let out a noise of surprise as he quickly withdrew his hand and held it close to his chest, torso turned away defensively and both of them breathing heavily as Yachi came to understand that she was not in any danger and that the giant (at least in her own eyes) standing in front of her meant no harm.

“Oh! Oh my gosh, I’m _so_ sorry about that. Wow, I didn’t… I didn’t realize I was so… oh my gosh I’m so sorry!” Yachi fumbled for her words as she clumsily took her earphones out and closed the book she was previously reading, her hands knocking over pencils and pens. She closed her eyes and took a big breath, holding it for a few seconds before slowly exhaling. Yamaguchi was still taken aback from the initial commotion and was speechless through Yachi’s ramblings.

“I didn’t mean to scare you that badly, I’m so—”

“No!” Yachi’s volume once again startling Yamaguchi to silence as she opened her eyes wide. Yachi blushed slightly and looked away as she realized what she had done, lowering her volume before she continued speaking. “You didn’t scare me. Well, I mean you did, but it’s not your fault! My music was probably too loud and nobody has ever approached me while I study here. By here I mean the coffee shop. I think you already knew that. Anyways… yeah…”

They remained in silence for a few moments, not looking at each other, before Amata’s quiet snickering behind them brought Yamaguchi back to his senses, reminding him of his goal. He cleared his throat.

“Umm… mind if I sit down?”

“Yes, of course! I’m sorry, I forgot your name.” Yachi squeaked as Yamaguchi took his place across from her, “It’s not you, I swear! You’re not forgettable or anything, I’m just really bad with names. We met yesterday during volleyball practice, and from the beginning I thought you were really cool! I’ll try really hard to—”

She faded out of her ramblings when she noticed the boy across from her giggling. She wasn’t exactly sure how to interpret that, but of course her mind jumped to the worse possible scenarios and her thoughts began snowballing from there. She barely noticed that he had said something.

“Pardon me?”

“Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi Tadashi from Class 4” he said pleasantly, flashing her a grin.

 “Yamaguchi-kun! Right. I remember now” she said, a little more calmly as she returned the smile, “I’m Yachi Hitoka from Class 5!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be able to forget you” Yamaguchi said sincerely.

The sudden confession made the two first-years stare at each other for a few seconds, registering what Yamaguchi had just said, before they both blushed terribly and looked away. There were several moments of silence before Yachi started fiddling with her pencil, twirling it between her thumb and index fingers, and Yamaguchi finally put the straw in his drink and sipped quietly. He cleared his throat politely, trying in a way to redeem himself by initiating small talk.

“So… what were you listening that made you work so hard you looked you were shaking?”

“Huh? Oh… uhh, it’s kind of embarrassing to be honest…” Yachi reached for her iPod and unlocked it, “But I listen to ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ on repeat when I’m doing homework in the morning to increase my work efficiency."

She turned her iPod around to show Yamaguchi the image cover of her most recently played song, but he didn't have to look at it to believe her. He did so anyways to amuse her.

"Does it really work though?" he asked, genuinely curious. He couldn't imagine how anybody could get much work done in the state Yachi was in just a few moments before. He was surprised she hadn't passed out in the time interval from when he had walked into the coffee shop to when he interrupted her train of thought.

"Only when I'm in a time crunch, Yamaguchi-kun" Yachi admitted, visibly a lot more relaxed. The freckled boy noticed how Yachi made a point of addressing him by his name in every other reply in the conversation that had been created.

 _She's really trying to learn my name_.

Whether Yachi was conscious of what she was doing or not, it made Yamaguchi feel... he couldn't put it any other way but "wanted". Someone was actively trying to remember him and to get to know him better. Even if their conversation that day did not last long (Yachi miraculously being able to neatly pack up all of her stuff and get to the train station without rushing now that she had the company of Yamaguchi), they began sitting with each other in that coffee shop almost every single morning. They studied together and talked about music, useful study habits, movies, current events, and, of course, volleyball.

At one point they started calling these morning meetings at the coffee shop "dates". At one point they started holding hands as they walked to the train station together. At one point goodbye kisses before school started became habit. At one point it was no longer Yamaguchi and Yachi, rather it became Tadashi and Hitoka. At one point the phrase "I love you" became a frequent entry in their conversations, whether it was at the coffee shop in the morning or late-night cuddles at each other's houses.

Every single time they headed out of the coffee shop together, Yamaguchi noticed that Amata-san would give him two thumbs up. Yamaguchi could only acknowledge the gesture with a small smile before returning to whatever conversation he was having with the small girl, who at one point became his _girlfriend_ and was usually excitedly describing something that would usually neither catch nor hold his attention for very long. Yet the way that her eyes sparkled, the way she put her entire body in motion for explanation, and the way her voice would take on so many different tones in an attempt to accurately depict whatever she was talking about among other things always left Yamaguchi with a single-word thought he had long ago stopped trying to prevent from coming to his head, because he knew with his entire being that the thought was the god-honest truth.

 _Cute_.

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who sucks at endings and conclusions! That would be Nation. Whoops.  
> Can Amata-san be technically called an OC? She has no physical description other than she is between Yam's and Yachi's height. Meh, whatever. She was rad as hell and helped these two nerds get together, so call her whatever you want~  
> This work is un-beta'd so I apologize for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I'll come back to it one day and try to make it a little less painful to read hopefully... maybe... ;*


End file.
